The Editor's Desk

After mulling over the possibility of no recommendation at all, I barely endorsed the passage of the four casino initiatives on the primary ballot for next Tuesday.

This is probably one of the situations where advertising did make a difference, but in a negative way. The anti-compact commercials’ constant invocations about the state not getting enough money and how the “taxpayers” were somehow getting a bad deal because the state bribe from the gaming tribes wasn’t big enough just filled me with contempt — that we’re owed some of somebody else’s money just because they have a lot of it.

As I explain, though, this doesn’t mean I’m happy with the existing relationship between the casinos in the state. I just think the culture of entitlement has gotten so bad that it’s a much bigger problem than the monopoly system we’ve got with the tribes. I, of course, would be much happier if gambling were legalized and treated like any other business, which I hope would avoid some of this nonsense in the future.